The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan

⭐ 8.5/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

I like reading books about the food industry and eating habits, things like that, but this book ended up being more about farming and cows and chickens. And yet I still quite liked it! Granted, the first half started pretty boring, and I may have done some skimming over the facts about growing corn for cows and where all the corn goes during the first few chapters. But once the author started visiting sustainable farms and learning how to hunt and forage, I was more interested and easily read a chapter a day.

The author is a journalist, and he follows a few different food chains. From what I could tell, he did a ton of research, and he personally visits several farms and talks to different farmers. The three main sections are when he follows the commercial food chain (corn to huge cow farms), then a sustainable, organic farm, and then he finally learns to hunt, grow, and forage for his own food. His overall point is to explore the omnivore's dilemma - what should we eat? It's about understanding where your food comes from and what your connection to it is. It was a pretty valuable read for me.